


A Crowded Cupboard

by april_snakehole



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-24
Updated: 2016-06-24
Packaged: 2018-07-18 00:39:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7292560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/april_snakehole/pseuds/april_snakehole
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sirius pushes James and Lily into a cupboard, hoping to force them to talk about their mutual feelings. His plan doesn't go as smoothly as he hoped. My jilyfest trope submission on tumblr!</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Crowded Cupboard

This really wasn’t how Lily expected the day to go. Classes earlier had dragged a bit, but at lunch there had been pie and she’d spent time out by the lake with Mary. It was one of the last days to enjoy sitting out before the weather would be too cold. She’d run a little later than she’d anticipated and hurried to get ready for patrols. 

“You used to hate patrols. You used to go 10 minutes late with your feet dragging,” Mary had pointed out with a giggle. “Now you’re primping for 15 minutes minimum.”

Lily had glared as she placed her hairbrush daintily on the bathroom counter. “Well I changed my mind.”

“About more than just patrols, it would seem,” Mary had said with a wink, watching as Lily’s face went scarlet. 

The first twenty minutes of patrols had been wonderful— nothing was happening in the castle on this sleepy October night, and so she and James had just had time to talk. 

Until Sirius had showed up. Until he had shoved them into this godforsaken spiderweb covered broom closet and set up shop outside the door, using charms as well as his body weight to keep it firmly shut. 

James was mortified. “I’m sorry about him. Usually I can keep him on a short leash, but—“

“Oh please, no one can control Sirius Black. I’ve known him long enough to know that,” Lily said, waving her hand to dismiss his apology.  
 “Sometimes I can,” James offered. “Not today it would seem,” he finished with an exasperated expression. He tried another charm on the door. It budged slightly but didn’t open. 

“That’s right!” came a muffled yell from behind the door. 

“Mate, what do you expect to happen while you’re eavesdropping?” James yelled back. 

“Talk. About. Your. Damn. Feelings!” Sirius’ shouts were punctuated with a firm slap to the door between each word. 

“I feel that Sirius is an eavesdropping prat,” Lily offered coolly. “You, James?”

“Hmm, yes. I agree.” 

“FOR EACH OTHER.” Sirius’s muffled voice had gotten louder. 

“We’re mates,” James offered. 

“We’re fond of each other. Done,” Lily said. They nodded and promptly ignored any further eye contact, both choosing to take that moment to take in their picturesque surroundings.

The closet was quite small with what must have been a colony of spiders living in one corner. Brooms, mops, buckets and what appeared to be cleaning solutions on old wooden shelves. Yes, this is not where Lily thought the night was going. 

“You couldn’t have chosen a nicer place to imprison us, Black?” Lily yelled. She got no response and considered leaning against the shelf behind her. She thought better of it when she noticed how dusty it all was. 

James flipped a couple of buckets over and took a seat, motioning to the other. She joined him with a sigh. 

“How long before he gives up?”

“Awhile, I would say. Stubborn bastard. Again, I’m sorry,” James sighed. He rubbed his face tiredly and when he took his hands away, a smudge of dust and grime ran down his cheek. 

“Oh, you have— here,” Lily said, reaching forward and taking the end of her sweater to his cheek. She lingered for a beat longer than she should have, but James didn’t seem to mind. 

“Thanks.”

She shrugged. “And there are worse things than being stuck with you. Somehow I’ll find a way to survive,” Lily said with a teasing smile. 

“He’s wasting your time, though.” 

“Yours too.”

“Eh, not really. Any time spent with you isn’t a waste. For me,” James said quietly. He realized what he had said suddenly and glanced up at her with a sheepish smile. 

This was it. This was the time. In her head over the past couple of weeks, she’d thought about this moment, but it always took place next to the lake or by the fire in the Gryffindor common room. Not shoved in a broom cupboard with his mate eavesdropping and a dozen spiders watching with their ninety-six eyes. 

“James, I—“ 

His eyes changed, from sheepish to confused to hopeful all in a split moment. They took her breathe away, those hopeful eyes.  
 “Yeah?” 

She leaned forward and moved to grab his hand when— 

The door burst open and Sirius fell in, closing it quickly behind him.

“Filch!” He whispered, scrambling still in the dark and landing half in James’ lap. 

“How close?” James whispered back, not-so-gently shoving him away.

“Just outside the door now.” 

Lily let out a frustrated breathe. “So we can’t walk outside because he’d think we—“

“Yeah, he’ll tell Dumbledore you were shagging.”

“You’re in here too!” Lily protested, face drained of color. 

“Filch wouldn’t care,” Sirius whispered back, fixing her with an annoyed look. 

“And we weren’t—” she started.

“I know that, but that miserable old bat doesn’t care about the truth,” Sirius hissed. “He just hates us.”

“Yeah, he did pitch a fit to Dumbledore when he made me Head Boy. Almost quit, I guess,” James said to Lily. He nudged Sirius in the ribs with his foot. “Do you have the Map? Or are you failing me in every possible way today.” 

“Remus has it. And I never fail you.”    
Lily inched closer to the door, trying to discern footsteps. All she could hear was the boys bickering and shoving at each other. “Will both of you shut up? I’m trying to hear if he’s gone.” 

They managed to be quiet for a few seconds before James couldn’t stand it. 

“This is entirely your fault, you know,” James hissed.  
 If they weren’t trying to be quiet, Sirius would have thrown his head back to laugh. As it was, he raised his eyebrows so high that James was almost impressed. “I think it’s your fault,” Sirius finally responded. “If you two would talk about your damn feelings instead of staring at each other in class all of the time. You both pretend like you’re not doing it and look away when you get caught, which is all the time. It has gotten sickening, really. Did you two make any progress in here?”

“Boys—”

James kicked Sirius in the ribs again, a bit harder than the first time. “Well, this was not the way to handle this situation—”

Sirius threw his hands in the air. “Someone had to do something. I figured in close proximity for more than five minutes with no where to run, you both would get acquainted with each other’s tonsils—”

Lily grabbed Sirius by his collar. Alarmed, he nearly shouted, but James shoved a hand over his mouth. 

“Boys, shut up. I have a plan. And it involves you suffering a bit, Sirius, so I’m pleased as pie,” she said in a low voice. 

Two minutes later, Lily knocked loudly on the door. She grabbed the knob and acted as resistance as Filch tried to pry it open, finally letting it go and falling forward as it burst forward, revealing a suspicious looking Filch.   “What are you doing out of bed?”  “Mr. Filch, thank you for finding me!” Lily cried, the picture of distress. “I was on patrol and I thought I heard something in there. When I went in, I think Peeves closed it and the door stuck. Thank Merlin you were around!”   “Peeves,” Filch spat, looking behind Lily into the closet. Just brooms and mops and spiders. He looked back at her. 

“If you wouldn’t mind walking me back—“

“Where’s Potter?” Filch asked. He poked his head in the closet and sniffed. 

“Poor thing had an awful headache. I sent him to bed. I was just finishing up patrols when I got stuck,” Lily said. She started to wipe cobwebs from her skirt. “Awful. So glad you found me.” She smiled warmly and Filch, a man at whom people very rarely smiled warmly, hesitated. 

“Not safe for you to walk back alone… follow me,” he said gruffly, and took off at a brisk trot down the hallway. 

Lily threw a quick wink into the open doorway of the broom closet before heading out after him. 

“She’s brilliant,” muttered a space just behind a mop. Sirius, hidden with a Disillusionment charm and shoved in the spider-filled corner, began to move. 

James, who Lily had instructed to stand in the other, spider-free corner before casting a Disillusionment charm on him as well, chuckled. “No shit.” 

“I wish the plan included less spiders in my hair,” Sirius admitted. 

“Funny, that. I wish it included more,” James said crossly, pushing the other boy back into the spider corner as he made his way out of the cupboard. 

Neither of the boys said anything else until they reached the Gryffindor Common Room. They cast the counter charms quietly, too, and Sirius was about to walk up the the dorm without saying anything when he stopped short. 

“I’m not sorry, you know. Something had to be done.” Sirius crossed his arms and leveled a glare at James. 

James sat heavily on the sofa. “Talk to me, Sirius. Use your words next time. Don’t lock me in the most disgusting cupboard you could find. Did you really think that is where I want to start this with Lily?” 

Sirius coughed and had the decency to look slightly ashamed. “Suppose not.” He coughed again and James finally looked up at him. “This is what we do, though. The Marauders! Pranks and nonsense.” His smile faltered a bit. “Or are we all too grown up and boring for that now, Head Boy Potter?” 

“Don’t do that,” James snapped. “I love a good prank as next as the next bloke, but not about her. Not about this.” 

Sirius was silent. “Yeah,” he finally said. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” And he left. It was the closest thing to an apology James could really expect. 

James sat there, head in his hands, until the portrait hole opened. He looked up to see Lily, smiling slightly and bundled up in her dressing robe and pajamas. 

“You were brillia—,” he croaked. Clearing his throat, he tried again. “Brilliant. Just brilliant.” 

“Can’t believe it worked. I really can’t believe that Filch actually walked me back. It was… strange,” Lily laughed. She sat down next to him and looked at the fire. “I came over to check on you once I felt like Filch was really gone. You alright?” 

“I’ve been better,” he chuckled bitterly. 

“Look, James—”

“Don’t pay him any mind. Sirius gets things in his head and he’s a dog with a bone. Literally,” he said. Lily tilted her head in question but he just laughed. “Never mind. Sometime I’ll tell you.” 

Lily was staring at him. Sirius was right about that— she couldn’t keep her eyes off of him in class these days, and now it seemed the habit was extending to after hours, too. But when he looked up and locked eyes with her, she didn’t look away this time.

“You know, before Sirius barged in, I was starting to say something,” she said, eyes locked but fingers fiddlings with the fringe on her dressing robe. 

James swallowed heavily and cleared his throat. “Yeah… what was that?” 

“I do… fancy you,” she said slowly. She was so glad she was looking at him, so glad she could see the soft and slow smile spread across his face, first with his mouth and then across to his cheeks and finally to his eyes, which crinkled at the corners. A smile of joy. 

A laugh bubbled up from his throat. “I, uh, fancy you too.” He ran a hand through his hair but kept staring back all the while. 

She raised an eyebrow. And then she laughed, because when James Potter laughed it was infectious. “Really? Never would’ve guessed. Your mate kinda tipped your hand for you there.”

“Well, that and all of my actions for the past thee or so years,” James hummed. 

Lily laughed again. “Yeah, well.” She reached up towards his hair. “You’ve got a cobweb.” She brushed it off of his hair quickly. 

James grimaced. “Thank you for giving Sirius the spider corner. Mine was bad enough.” 

“You stood very still. I was quite proud,” she grinned. “Filch would have noticed you all moving, even with the charms.” 

“Lily Evans is proud of me,” he whispered, almost to himself. 

“And she fancies you. You’re having quite the day, Potter.” She couldn’t help the goofy grin that was plastered to her face. If Sirius were here, she figured he’d be as delighted as he was disgusted. 

“I am, quite the day. And if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go take a shower, get all of the spiderwebs off of me, and make Sirius sleep on the floor while I steal his bed for the night.” He stood up and started walking towards the staircase. 

“Is that all?” Lily asked, almost outraged. 

“What else do you want?” James asked, turning to her with a look of faux-confusion.  “Ask me out, James Potter!” She hit her fist against the arm of the sofa as she said it, and James thought it was the cutest thing he’d ever seen. 

“Oh, I’ve done that. Twice, I believe, and both times were disasters.” He walked back towards her slowly. “What’re you gonna do about it then, Evans?” 

“Hey Potter,” she said quietly, goofy grin still glued to her face, “go out with me.”

He shook his head and laughed. “You’re rubbish at this, frankly. Give me a time and a place, something to work with—” 

She stood abruptly and he grinned as she stalked over to him, and poked him in the chest.

“Listen up, Potter,” she said, playing at being cross, though the grin was still peaking out around the corners of her mouth. 

“I’m listening Evans,” he hummed. 

“Hogsmeade, next weekend,” she said firmly. “And don’t push your luck, or next time you’re getting the spider-corner.” She poked him gently in the chest again for good measure. He grabbed her hand and held onto it, smiling at the sound of her laughter as he leaned down to kiss her on the cheek.

“I’ll be there.”


End file.
